Square Enix discusses the iPhone remake of Secret Of Mana

games™: There have been quite a few Mana games over the years but none have been as popular as Secret Of Mana. Why do you think that is?

Masaru Oyamada: I should imagine that the strongest attraction comes from its trademark mechanics such as motion battle and command as well as the universe as it is the main reason for which the franchise has been firmly established. When the original version was released, I bought the game and enjoyed all the adventures with my friends. I still remember how refreshing I found it and how much pleasure I got out of it.

g™: How difficult has it been to port Secret Of Mana to iPhone and what can players expect in terms of new features?

MO: If you are expecting to find something technically new, you may unfortunately be disappointed. However, when we decided to port the title to iPhone, we were determined not to simply end up with a retro game on a modern format. So, Hiromichi Tanaka, the producer of the original version, contributed to the project as the supervisor and many aspects such as the graphics and the interface have been reviewed and optimised. We have been lucky enough to get great support from the localisation team and, as a result, significant improvement is evident in the narrative.

g™: What are the challenges of porting retro games that were never intended for a touch screen to the iPhone?

MO: This title is heavily action-orientated. So we spent a lot of time ensuring that the player can operate his character as he wishes. You will have the key-pad hidden behind your own playing fingers and this often causes slight gaps between the actual area that is being operated on and where the player intuitively feels he should be operating. Following this, enough flexibility has been given to it so that these issues would be naturally rectified. I would expect that you would find the game easy to play while experiencing no frustration.

games™: Square Enix has been a big supporter of the iPhone since the start. What is it about the device that is attractive to you?

Takehiro Ando: It is hugely attractive to us that iPhone titles can be enjoyed by worldwide players with no release time lag to be experienced. When it comes to working with the device, it is extremely exciting as I try to optimise each game for the full-touch interface. We had never designed hardware before but iPhone has given us the first challenge to take on.

g™: How has your approach to the system changed as you’ve developed more games?

TA: It is becoming clear to us that consumers tend to look for rich contents from Square Enix. Nowadays, we apply quite a big part of our practice on publishing such games as to be able to compare favourably with ones for mobile phones in addition to casual games.

g™: How do you decide which games to port and which not to? What is it about Secret Of Mana and Final Fantasy Tactics that seemed suitable to the system?

MO: Secret of Mana was released in Japan for mobile phones but the specs were not easily compatible with the phones abroad. When we announced that the game would be released for Japanese mobile phones, we received a big call of demand from overseas users. So we pursued the possibility of porting the title to iPhone in order to deliver it to a global audience.

TA: We make such decisions by actively checking consumer feedback on forums and in reviews and then considering which titles we could attempt to port realistically.

g™: What other retro games can we expect on the iPhone in the future? Is there a way for fans to request their favourites?

TA: I would like to encourage them to make effective use of website reader reviews and online forums, we spend a great deal of time reading these and looking for fan feedback, we can assure you that no request will miss our attention if its posted somewhere online.

Secret Of Mana is available from the iTunes App Store today at £5.49. If there are any other Square Enix games you’d love to see remade on iPhone (especially Seiken Densetsu 3!) then please say so in the comments below.

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i bought it twice on snes and now on my iphone.
instead of producing new titles especially for the iphone PLEASE just release secret of evermore!
set the price at 10€, i’d buy it.
if it’d be possible, you could also release terranigma.
a lot of people who played those great snes games are iphoneusers nowadays and i know many people (including me) who would buy all the square and enix games.

the best games ever: secret of evermore, terranigma and third place secret of mana.

please, release these games fast so i can buy them

http://www.gamerelatedblog.com/ StriderNo9

God I want iehander.

http://www.gamerelatedblog.com/ StriderNo9

Einhander

AidensMercy

We need secret of evermore on the iPhone and since you guys are getting final fantasy tactics on the iPhone how about chocobo dungeon 2 also

Jpena325

I got excited but i would also love to see Secrets of Evermore come out , please i would buy that game in a heartbeat it was my childhood favorite,

SecretsofEvermore

Secrets of Evermore!!!!!1 i just bought Secret of Mana in the app store great coverage, i mean the buttons are great easy to use the game is still just as fun as when i remember it years ago when i was young, if you guys really do read this you have to bring back Secrets of evermore, i type it online and see all kinds of recommendations, people asking for it to come out on iphone, you guys have done a great job with Secrets of Mana now just put out Secrets of evermore or at-least make an announcement so we know if you are going to bring it back or not the suspense is killing me , jk thanx for reading Sqaure Enix(Soft)

Battledome64

Secret of evermore

Bravo1105

Secret of evermore please !!!!

kim

I know it’s a bit late to comment but really, bring out Secret of Evermore on Iphone 5. It would really make my day. I have grown up with games and now 30 years after my birth, I’m still playing games. But a game like Secret of Evermore really warms my heart.

Ad

Definitely Seiken Densetsu 3! That would be a no-brainer

Bestly

This is so exciting. And I wanna thank everyone involved in bringing these old classics back to life. My best friend and I grew up on these games. If you could bring Secret of evermore back. That would be amazing. Iv been looking for it for years with little success. I have already played FF,CT, and am about to play SOM ,but secret of evermore is one i could play over and over again. Thanks again guys.

Secret of Evermore

Please make a Secret of Evermore app for iPhone. Thanks.

Adam

Secret of evermore. Hands down. I have so much love for that title.
I’ve been occasionally searching to find out if it has been released basically since the iPhone came out.

Todd

Came here to request Secret of Evermore. An English version of Seiken Densetsu 3 would also be AMAZING.

Solly

its quiet a while ago but…how bout illusion of time…or terranigma as well i loved this games …well i still love them cant stop listen to each soundtracks all thos retro snes rpgs r amazing and pretty worth work on tablets and stuff…<3

Nenad Popovic

Secret of Evermore and Terranigma definitely, i would buy each for $10-20 if i could